Policeman jailed over underage gay sex

A former PC who was a lesbian and gay liasion officer has been jailed for two and a half years for sexual activity with a 15-year-old boy.

Mark Brigham, 38, formerly of the Metropolitan Police, met the 15-year-old at a party in August. The teenager’s family had asked Brigham to give him advice as he had just come out.

Brigham described the youth, who cannot be named, to his friends as “stunning.” The two stayed in contact using Facebook and text messages before performing ‘consensual sex acts’ on each other, a jury at Portsmouth Crown Court heard.

Richard Atchley, defending, said: “He resigned immediately and did not wait to be sacked.

“He has genuine remorse and abjectly apologises to all for behaviour that came at the bottom of a very long downward spiral caused by what was going on in his private life.”

Judge Roger Hetherington said to Brigham upon his sentencing: “The offences are aggravated by the disparity of age between the two of you – you were more than twice his age.”

Brigham had been going through some personal difficulties, including the break up of a relationship and had large debts, the court heard. He has been forced to sign on the sex offender’s register, which he will remain on indefinitely and is banned from working with children.

PinkNews covers religion, politics, entertainment, finance, and community news for the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community in the UK and worldwide. Founded to produce broadsheet quality journalism for the LGBT community, we cover politics to theology in an intelligent manner.